Earlier that day I had seen an English-language newspaper article about the Turkish college entrance exam and how students were protesting over it. So when we arrived at Taksim square and saw an ENORMOUS demonstration, all one of the kids had to tell me was "entrance exam" before I had an idea of what it was about. We ate a kebab sandwich and then followed the crowd, listening to them protest. It was funny, because the rhythm of what they were saying sounded like what you'd hear in any American demonstration, but the words were total babble to us. Blah, BLAH! Blah blah BLAH! BLAH blah blah blah BLAH blah blah!
We followed the march all the way down the street. Unfortunately, this coincided with my camera deciding there was a lens error and refusing to close (it later fixed itself, to my great relief) so I have no pictures.
We went back and got Carla in the afternoon, and then we went to some Turkish baths. THAT was an experience. You pay and get a token, a scrubby mit, and a pair of black undies in a bag. Then you go to a changing room, put your clothes in a locker, and just wear the undies and a cloth wrap to the bath room, which is a big round room with a round marble slab in the middle. There are a bunch of women all around in their underwear, either laying out on the slab, washing others, or washing themselves in side rooms that open out from the main circle. Some have on bras, most do not. Before you let your imagination go in some sort of Playboy-Mansion direction, let me repaint this a little for you by saying that this is an all-ages, all-body types group of women. I think the average age of the employees was probably over 50. Oh, and it probably goes without saying that all of this was women-only (there was a separate facility for men).
I started by laying out on the marble slab, which was heated. It was nice to just relax for a minute, especially because what came next was not particularly relaxing for me! This woman came and tugged on my foot. She was about 5 feet tall and at least 55, and her flesh was.. abundant. And she was bossy! She spoke no English, so she would just kind of pull me around until I assumed the correct position. The first step was to be scrubbed with the mit, which caused rolls of dead skin to come off. It was all very fast and businesslike, but it was still weird to have a stranger's gloved mit swiping me all over. She did my front, then briskly rolled me over and did the back. Then she tossed a bowl of cold water over me. Yikes!
Then came the soaping part, and this was actually even less relaxing than the last part because I was TICKLISH!! She pulled a pillowcase out of sudsy water and filled it with air, then squeezed the air out over me, creating gallons of fine bubbles. It got around my neck and I could barely handle the ticklish feeling of it-- and then I got some in my face and mouth. Meanwhile, she was spreading it over my front and back. When she got to the feet I kicked reflexively, so I think she spent less time on the whole thing than she might have otherwise. Which was fine with me.
Then she led me to a fountain on the wall, scolded me in Turkish (for being ticklish? it was unclear) and left me there. I didn't know what I was supposed to do until Carla came over and told me that was the end of it. After that we went in the jacuzzi and hung out some more in a side chamber, splashing ourselves with warm water and just hanging out until the heat started to seem oppressive and we called it a day. We were allowed to sit and have a drink in the next room before we went to change and leave.
It was definitely a neat experience. I got to add another item to my list of "jobs I'm glad I don't have"-- bath house worker. Those women have to do some pretty significant physical work, and all in a room that is almost a sauna. And as I mentioned before, they are not particularly young!
The next day we each spent the morning working on errands--I went to the post office, Eve went in search of shoes to replace hers that were falling apart, and Carla worked on a job application. We met back up for lunch and then went to see the mosque of Suleiman the Great and then another mosque whose name I didn't catch.
After that we continued walking across the bridge to the north and ended up back in the Taksim neighborhood where we did some window shopping. Eve had a Rick Steve guidebook on Istanbul, and Rick talked about an area with famous Turkish food. First we got this quince dessert with water buffalo clotted cream on top. I don't know how I would rate this. By itself the quince was too sweet (think a lump of soggy fruit rollup but less tangy) and the clotted cream was like cold, gamey butter. Together it was better, and I ate probably a third of it before deciding I'd pushed my luck far enough.
Well, apparently Eve is an adventurous eater, so Carla and I offered to pay for her dinner if we could choose what was in it. We went to a restaurant famous for its sheep brains and tripe soup, and ordered one sheep brain salad. Eve ate it--and liked it! I tried it and it was hard for me to get down... not because of the flavor (there wasn't much) but because the texture was like... extremely dense cream? Dense, creamy tofu? It was just not my bag.
Then we figured, why not get her a tripe soup too? Despite growing up in El Paso, I'd managed to never try menudo. Eve tasted the soup and said it was okay, so I had a taste. People had told me of tripe that it was "chewy" but I wasn't really ready for the KIND of chewy. It was like cutting the fatty part off a piece of chicken, then eating that. Or like skin. I don't know. It was awful! I swallowed it but my dinner was over after that. Plus, the broth was SO... barnyardy. It tasted the way a goat shed smells. Eve ate about half of it. What a champion!
Then yesterday was a kind of catch-up day-- we went for a run/stretch/pushups session, took a ferry to Asia, and cooked dinner, then called it an early night. Carla started a resolution to go to bed at 11 and wake up at 7, and of course my body has adapted all too well to this scheme-- such that nightlife has started to seem out of the question. Nonetheless, today our plan is to go to Princes Island and then go see live Balkan Music tonight. I may have to take a nap!
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